How does Grammar Bugs help?
A solid understanding of grammar is needed for all language skills, not just speaking. However, written grammar skills are the most complex. Grammar study improves:
- reading comprehension
- reading fluency
- vocabulary building
- writing composition
- independent editing skills
By focusing on the most relevant features of grammar — sentence structure and meaning — students gain knowledge without becoming bogged down in meaningless terminology that changes with every sentence. Making grammar meaningful makes its usage memorable, especially when students tackle this enormous area of study in a simplified manner. As students build bugs, they build grammar concepts, deepening their understanding!
These strategies can be applied to all learning levels — from simple readers to complicated ACT practice sentences! Because they write on the bugs, students understand that what they write in practice applies to the sentences they write on paper.
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Why not just do traditional sentence diagramming?
Traditional sentence diagramming requires a thorough understanding of parts of speech in order for students to be successful. This makes diagramming very frustrating during the learning process, rendering the dangling lines meaningless for students. Grammar Bugs create an immediate, simple and usable metaphor, illustrating the function of words, phrases, and clauses within any sentence. Unlike diagramming, bug images are easy to recall, so students can hold new learning in working memory when they edit their own sentences.
Bugs are easily moved around, allowing students to hypothesize as they learn. The multisensory, moveable aspect of bugs helps students identify missing elements or misplaced modifiers within their own sentences.
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Do you teach parts of speech?
Yes, we just don’t start there. It is always easier to memorize a label if you first understand what the label represents. By starting at the sentence level and focusing on function first, students are able to grasp the purpose of any element in a sentence as well as the value of grammar instruction which makes for more meaningful application in their reading and writing. The need to begin with meaning and the functional use of sentences — rather than parts of speech — is well supported in grammar research.
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Can Grammar Bugs be used with younger students?
Grammar Bugs is designed for grades 3-12, depending on the content. However, many concepts such as sentence mechanics, subject and verb, basic sentence structures, describers, and even prepositional phrases can be taught as early as grade 1. These concepts are also introduced in our Pinwheels curriculum for early readers and writers.
- Grammar Bugs 1: Sentence Types can be used with students as early as grade 1. Give them plenty of time to practice this foundational knowledge.
- Grammar Bugs 2: Clauses can be used with students after completing Grammar Bugs 1, but is recommended for grade 3 and above.
- Grammar Bugs 3: Phrases can begin after completing Grammar Bugs 1 in order to introduce prepositional phrases. Students use these short, common phrases in their oral language from a very early age. Other phrases found in Grammar Bugs 3 should be taught after Grammar Bugs 2, throughout advancing grade levels.
- Grammar Bugs 4: Dialogue can be used to teach simple dialogue concepts but is best taught after completion of Grammar Bugs 1 and 2.
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Can Grammar Bugs be used to teach an older student?
Grammar Bugs can be used to visually represent complicated sentence structures and how those structures can be manipulated in writing. Using the explicit teaching of more complicated sentence structures and punctuation with the manipulative aspect of the program, older students will improve their own sentence-writing and editing ability.
Use bugs to help older students investigate sentences from grade-level literature, aiding in their comprehension and analysis work. Many high schoolers struggle with deep comprehension of complex reading passages due to the complicated syntax, so grammar practice with bug manipulatives becomes increasingly important as students progress to these higher learning levels with authentic, grade-level text.
Grammar is a skill that takes years to master. The more complex the sentences, the harder the concepts become. Grammar Bugs illustrate the most fundamental elements, even within the most complex sentences.
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Can Grammar Bugs help students who struggle with language difficulties?
Grammar Bugs are both multisensory and multimodal, incorporating listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The opportunity to take learning off of the writing page helps students engage more readily with this complicated area of language arts. The visual nature of the bugs is sticky, helping students who struggle see how sentences work, why punctuation matters, and eventually how to manipulate and remember all the parts of a sentence to communicate more effectively!
The content is designed for teaching students in grades 3-12, at any skill level, especially students with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and developmental language delays. For students with language delays, weak syntax and vocabulary are the two most likely areas of weakness, according to research. The Grammar Bugs program follows a functional approach to teaching grammar, using evidence-based therapeutic strategies from the field of Speech-Language therapy.
For students with dyslexia and dysgraphia, their weak reading and writing skills interrupt their ability to coordinate all the areas of literacy needed for successful reading comprehension and writing composition — including grammar! You will help students who struggle by teaching grammar explicitly and systematically, in a way that is functional — impacting their spelling, writing composition and mechanics, and reading comprehension.
